Posts Tagged "New Zealand"

Reported in Scientific American, This Week in World War I: March 20, 1915 The report published in this issue from a century ago delivers a robustly optimistic outlook on the Allied attack on Turkish territory at the entrance to the waterway between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean: “If the great Mahan were living to-day [...]

Editor’s Note: Welcome to ANITA, the Antarctic Impulsive Transient Antenna! From October to December, Katie Mulrey is traveling with the ANITA collaboration to Antarctica to build and launch ANITA III, a scientific balloon that uses the entire continent of Antarctica for neutrino and cosmic ray detection. This is the second installment in a series, “Neutrinos on Ice,” documenting that [...]

Katie Mulrey received a B.S. in Physics and Mathematics at the University of Mary Washington in 2008. She is now in the final phase of her Ph.D. work in High Energy Particle Astrophysics at the University of Delaware. Katie is a part of the ANITA collaboration and is heading to Antarctica to participate in the 2014 ANITA balloon campaign, which will probe the highest energy processes in the universe.

We made five planned dives during our voyage, each one a day long. It is a long day for the sub team. It takes several hours to prepare the submersible for the dive, and after seven to eight hours on the seafloor, another round of work is needed to prepare the sub for its next [...]

Dr. Malcolm Clark is a Principal Scientist (Deepwater Fisheries) at the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) in Wellington, New Zealand. He specializes in deep-sea fish and fisheries, seamount ecology and the impacts of human activities on these environments. Dr. Clark was a lead principal investigator for the Census of Marine Life program on Seamounts, from 2005 to 2011, and currently heads NIWA research programs on the biology and ecology of deep-sea communities, including seamount, hydrothermal vent, canyon and trench habitats.

Dr. Shinji Tsuchida is a scientist at the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC), based in Yokosuka, Japan. His works focuses on the taxonomy, diversity and ecology of vent-associated decapod crustaceans in the West and South Pacific Ocean. Dr. Tsuchida has a vast amount of experience exploring deep-sea ecosystems, especially seamounts using manned submersibles and ROVs.

The JAMSTEC research vessel RV Yokosuka sailed from Nuku’alofa in Tonga this morning, heading towards New Zealand to explore the animal life on deep undersea mountains, or seamounts. A team of 14 scientists from Japan and New Zealand, 41 ships officers and crew are on board. The Yokosuka is the mother ship for the human-operated [...]

Dr. Malcolm Clark is a Principal Scientist (Deepwater Fisheries) at the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) in Wellington, New Zealand. He specializes in deep-sea fish and fisheries, seamount ecology and the impacts of human activities on these environments. Dr. Clark was a lead principal investigator for the Census of Marine Life program on Seamounts, from 2005 to 2011, and currently heads NIWA research programs on the biology and ecology of deep-sea communities, including seamount, hydrothermal vent, canyon and trench habitats.

Dr. Shinji Tsuchida is a scientist at the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC), based in Yokosuka, Japan. His works focuses on the taxonomy, diversity and ecology of vent-associated decapod crustaceans in the West and South Pacific Ocean. Dr. Tsuchida has a vast amount of experience exploring deep-sea ecosystems, especially seamounts using manned submersibles and ROVs.

Fifty birds flew home last month. Now, 50 may not seem like much and flight might not sound all that unusual for birds, but we’re talking about the critically endangered rowi (Apteryx rowi), New Zealand’s scarcest kiwi species and one of the world’s rarest flightless birds. Rowi have had a rough time in the wild. [...]

Twice a week, John Platt shines a light on endangered species from all over the globe, exploring not just why they are dying out but also what's being done to rescue them from oblivion. John R. can be found on Twitter as @johnrplatt.

The Mercury Islands tusked weta (Motuweta isolata) isn’t exactly a thing of beauty. These massive New Zealand insects can reach more than seven centimeters in length, including the impressive tusks in front of their jaws that they use to push their prey around. But size and bullying strength didn’t necessarily help this weta, one of [...]

Twice a week, John Platt shines a light on endangered species from all over the globe, exploring not just why they are dying out but also what's being done to rescue them from oblivion. John R. can be found on Twitter as @johnrplatt.

Kakapo (Strigops habroptila), the critically endangered flightless parrots of New Zealand, have an unusual mating ritual. In the rare years when the birds breed, the males climb to the tops of hills, breathe in so deeply they swell up like balloons and then let out a series of deep, rhythmic booms that can be heard [...]

Twice a week, John Platt shines a light on endangered species from all over the globe, exploring not just why they are dying out but also what's being done to rescue them from oblivion. John R. can be found on Twitter as @johnrplatt.

New Zealand used to be home to two subspecies of the rare birds known as kōkako (Callaeas cinereus). Today only one subspecies remains. The South Island kōkako was last seen in 1967 and was finally declared extinct six years ago. Conservationists are determined to save the remaining subspecies, which can still be found in the [...]

Twice a week, John Platt shines a light on endangered species from all over the globe, exploring not just why they are dying out but also what's being done to rescue them from oblivion. John R. can be found on Twitter as @johnrplatt.

Long live the queens. A species of bumblebee that went extinct in its native Britain decades ago now has a second chance, as several short-haired bumblebees (Bombus subterraneus) were released June 3 in a restored habitat on the southeastern corner of England. This is the third phase in a multi-step effort to both bring back [...]

Twice a week, John Platt shines a light on endangered species from all over the globe, exploring not just why they are dying out but also what's being done to rescue them from oblivion. John R. can be found on Twitter as @johnrplatt.

At first (and probably second) glance you wouldn’t think that tigers and kiwis have all that much in common. Bengal tigers (Panthera tigris tigris) live in India and the surrounding countries, where the predators can weigh more than 220 kilograms. Little spotted kiwi (Apteryx owenii) live exclusively in New Zealand, where the flightless birds weigh [...]

Twice a week, John Platt shines a light on endangered species from all over the globe, exploring not just why they are dying out but also what's being done to rescue them from oblivion. John R. can be found on Twitter as @johnrplatt.

Elephants, turtles, grizzly bears and some of the world’s rarest frogs are among the endangered species in the news this week. Worst News of the Week: Armed gunmen entered the Dzanga Bai World Heritage Site in the violence-plagued Central African Republic this week and slaughtered at least 26 elephants. The site is known as the [...]

Twice a week, John Platt shines a light on endangered species from all over the globe, exploring not just why they are dying out but also what's being done to rescue them from oblivion. John R. can be found on Twitter as @johnrplatt.

Efforts to save the critically endangered shore plover from extinction in New Zealand have suffered a major setback: nearly 60 of the birds have died due to unknown causes, reducing the world population of the species to just 200. Shore plovers (also known as shore dotterels or Tuturuatu, Thinornis novaeseelandiae) lived on both of New [...]

Twice a week, John Platt shines a light on endangered species from all over the globe, exploring not just why they are dying out but also what's being done to rescue them from oblivion. John R. can be found on Twitter as @johnrplatt.

One of the world’s smallest penguins has nearly doubled the size of its population in the past decade and much of the credit is due to the farmer who owns the land where many of the penguins breed. White-flippered penguins (Eudyptula albosignata), also known as korora, are endemic to the Canterbury region of New Zealand, [...]

Twice a week, John Platt shines a light on endangered species from all over the globe, exploring not just why they are dying out but also what's being done to rescue them from oblivion. John R. can be found on Twitter as @johnrplatt.

Few people have ever seen a critically endangered Malherbe’s parakeet (Cyanoramphus malherbi) in the wild. Luis Ortiz-Catedral has not only seen more of the birds than just about anyone else, one of them has landed on his head. He has also witnessed something that almost no one else has ever seen among this species: mating. [...]

Twice a week, John Platt shines a light on endangered species from all over the globe, exploring not just why they are dying out but also what's being done to rescue them from oblivion. John R. can be found on Twitter as @johnrplatt.

The world’s 100 most endangered and unique birds have been ranked in a newly published study, and the list includes a corpse-eater with legendary skills of decapitation, a shameless self-inflator, and the world’s heftiest parrot. Conducted by a team from Yale University, Simon Fraser University, and the Zoological Society of London, the study analyses where [...]

Bec Crew is a Sydney-based science writer and award-winning blogger. She is the author of 'Zombie Tits, Astronaut Fish and Other Weird Animals' (NewSouth Press). Bec can be found on Twitter as @BecCrew.

Kiwi are flightless, nocturnal birds that are native to New Zealand. There are five recognised species of kiwi, and with 400 remaining individuals, the rarest is the critically endangered Rowi (Apteryx rowi) of New Zealand’s Okarito forest. The second rarest species is the little spotted kiwi (Apteryx owenii), which has been spread over several of [...]

Bec Crew is a Sydney-based science writer and award-winning blogger. She is the author of 'Zombie Tits, Astronaut Fish and Other Weird Animals' (NewSouth Press). Bec can be found on Twitter as @BecCrew.